Both AMP and ANZ Investments saw retail funds under management (FUM) slide during the March quarter in a generally flat period for the industry.
According to the latest figures from Australian research firm, Strategic Insight (SI), AMP and ANZ went backwards by $204 million (-1.8 per cent) and $86 million (-0.3 per cent), respectively, over the three months to March 31.
Mercer also was slightly in the red for the quarter (down $16 million or -0.3 per cent) against an overall market growth rate of just 0.6 per cent.
However, Milford and BNZ once again bucked the trend, both reporting quarterly FUM increases of just over 6 per cent: the pair of rapidly-expanding managers also posted the best 12-monthly growth figures of about 31 per cent and 41 per cent, respectively.
Kiwi Wealth and ASB also recorded respective annual growth-rates of 22.2 per cent and 20 per cent – well above the average 12.8 per cent for the 12-month period.
While Booster, Fisher Funds and BT/Westpac grew above the average for the year, AMP, Mercer and ANZ fell behind the pack with annual FUM growth of 3.4 per cent, 8 per cent and 9.8 per cent, respectively.
Over the 12 months to March 31, AMP’s retail market share slumped from 13.4 per cent to 12.2 per cent while ANZ gave back 0.7 per cent to competitors to finish the period with 28 per cent.
Despite the year-long FUM funk, ANZ still manages almost $26 billion in retail funds compared to almost $13.7 billion for the second-largest manager, ASB, which increased market share from 13.8 per cent to 14.7 per cent over the annual period.
Managers outside the SI top 10 struggled over the March quarter with their collective FUM down 0.8 per cent to a tad above $7 billion. During the 12 months to March 31, the also-rans grew by 6.2 per cent – or about half the industry average.
The SI report shows total NZ retail funds jumped from almost $82.3 billion at the end of March 2017 to about $92.8 billion 12 months later.
“A combination of fairly good performances on underlying investment markets together with continued positive Net Funds Flow equally contributed to this solid overall result,” the SI report says.
“… While during the latest March quarter Gross Inflows decreased 5.9% to NZ$6.2bn, year on year they were still up strongly by 15.1%. Significant annual Inflow growth was experienced by Russell (126.5%), BNZ (41.7%), Mercer (33.2%), ASB (28.1%), Milford (26.3%), Kiwi Wealth (25.9%), BT / Westpac NZ (24.2%) and AMP (18.0%).”
The KiwiSaver sector was up almost 19 per cent for the 12-month period to hit close to $48.5 billion representing more than 52 per cent of the total retail market. SI figures show non-super managed funds added 8.1 per cent to FUM over the 12-month period, ending the financial year with almost $37.3 billion in the kitty.